Daily Review has not appeared tonight so will leave this here:
Reportedly said by Matthew Hooton in his latest NBR article this is an extract:
To discuss their idea, Mr Leggett and Ms Pagani met Mr Little, his deputy Annette King and Labour’s political director Neale Jones. Shortly after, word was put out that Ms Pagani was “stroppy.” According to the leader’s office, Ms King had taken particular offence to Ms Pagani while the leader himself said relatively little.
Having observed how Ms Clark had responded to her own attempt to roll her in 1996, Ms King acted quickly to arrange a confrontation at Tuesday’s caucus meeting. Ms King, Mr Robertson, Te Atatu MP Phil Twyford and chief whip Chris Hipkins made clear to MPs suspected of being involved with Progress that they should have nothing further to do with it.
The head of the Rainbow faction, Louisa Wall, supported by Wigram MP Megan Woods, even urged that those involved be expelled from the party altogether. As he had largely done in the original meeting, Mr Little kept his own counsel. Mr Shearer and Mr Parker also knew to stay above the fray. Progress now seems to be going nowhere.
Progress is the think tank purportedly being set up by Pagani, Leggott, Quinn and others.
If this excerpt is more or less correct, then it looks like “Progress” is dead in the water at least as far as the Labour Party is concerned. It also means someone has leaked caucus information – YET AGAIN.
Pure speculation, but my hunch is the info. came either direct from Josie Pagani or through her spouse John Pagani, who is sure to still have links with one or two Labour MPs. If the meetings did go the way it is claimed then it would be a case of revenge because they didn’t get the response they wanted.
In other words, the whole think tank idea is really all about Pagani, Quinn, Leggott and co. and not the Labour Party!
Tppa battle is going on in USA.
“The US House of Representatives on Friday (Saturday NZT) delivered a blow, though perhaps a temporary one, to President Barack Obama’s signature goal of strengthening ties with Asia when it defeated one measure, but approved another important to finishing a Pacific Rim trade pact.” http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/69360200/president-obama-suffers-setback-on-tpp-legislation
The following explains the way that the US House of Reps ties 2 bills in together in order to pass unpalatable legislation.
” What Obama was proposing was a trick, one used repeatedly to advance distasteful policies, by getting each side to vote only on the parts they like. And House progressives responded by saying they wouldn’t play that game anymore. If they can withstand the pressure, not only will trade be derailed, but the era of the split-vote gambit, where opponents help the victors, will be over.
“Progressive Democrats took their stand on trade adjustment assistance (TAA), a separate bill to “fast track” trade authority for the President, which the Senate linked together, so that they had to pass concurrently. TAA offers modest job training, income support and health insurance assistance to workers who lose their jobs from trade deals. It’s not very effective, but it sounds good; Democrats who oppose trade deals can say that they at least got some help for workers.
TAA and fast track have passed together ever since the Trade Act of 1974. This is a Washington game where Democrats get to vote for TAA so Republicans don’t have to. Republicans don’t favor TAA because they see it as welfare.
That set up liberal Democrats as the deciding factor on whether Obama would get his fast-track trade authority. The President went to Capitol Hill to tell Democrats to “play it straight” on the vote. But voting for TAA as a sweetener for a policy most Democrats don’t support is the opposite of playing it straight. It’s a stupid game, and progressives finally decided not to play.
……But today, TAA fell 126-302, with only 39 Democrats supporting.”
A trade deal so good they need to gut health spending to finance a special programme to compensate the people who lose their jobs because of it.
/
Medicare means many things to many people. To seniors, it’s a program providing good, low-cost healthcare at a stage in life when it’s most needed.
To Congress, it’s beginning to look more like a piggy bank to be raided.
That’s the only conclusion one can draw from a provision slipped into a measure to extend and increase the government’s Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides assistance to workers who lose their jobs because of trade deals. The measure, introduced by Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.), proposes covering some of the $2.7-billion cost of the extension by slicing $700 million out of doctor and hospital reimbursements for Medicare.
I have to wonder at the motives, or at least the negotiating skills, of the NZ parties involved in this.
The outstanding feature of the TPP negotiations is that the USA approached us, by us I mean all the parties involved in the initial stages. They wanted in when they weren’t invited, meaning we had something the US wanted.
Anyone who knows about negotiating will know that put the US in a weak position and the rest of us in a strong position. We could tell the US to naff off, clearly the fact the US weren’t invited to begin with tells us we don’t need them to create a strong trans pacific partnership.
Everything about this deal is saying that the US want in more than we need or want them, so why are our representatives caving in and pandering to them?
We’re a vassal state. Consider what we did for them re: illegal Dotcom raid. Only in very rare instances can we tell them to “F off.” Plus Groser has probably been looking at a nice position on an executive board overseas somewhere. Probably the US.
This was part of Nancy Pelosi’s speech prior to the vote on the TAA.
“I was hopeful from the start of this discussion that we could find a path to yes,” she said, adding, “Each week, each of us goes home to our district and in the case of many of us, we put our hand on a very hot stove. We hear the concern of so many families that have financial instability and uncertainty.” Ms. Pelosi made it clear she would not support the legislation, putting in the final twist of the knife.” http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/us/politics/democrats-revolt-on-trade-bill-obama.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
“we put our hand on a very hot stove”…
This is our problem. We need to call our MPs to account. Let’s stop passively accepting crappy government decisions and really turn up the heat on the stove for our local MPs.
Making fun of people’s health concerns is not helpful and is politically bankrupt. Let’s keep in mind that in NZ at least wind farms are often big business, with often little respect for local communities and their needs. People get ridiculed for opposing them in ways that people who say oppose new dams don’t. Why is that exactly?
NZ needs to learn how to live within it’s limits. I support the shift to renewables obviously, but I’m hard pressed to support something like a large scale windfarm on the Lammermoors so that Aucklanders can wear t-shirts in winter, or people can have heated towel rails, or the dairy export industry can keep strip mining the NZ landscape, or we can convert the NZ car fleet to electric and not change our driving habits. There’s only so much land, and currently we are using the same daft thinking that brought us AGW ie that demand will increase supply indefinitely.
Interesting thought about limits – can limits change and therefore living within those limits change. Are limits a construction rather than an absolute.
Build that renewable power now; for the moment people will use the electricity for frivalous BS, but in 20 years when we are in the middle of the crunch, wiser heads will prevail over how that power should be allocated – as long as we have that generation available to allocate.
The ambitious project centers on startup MX3D’s technology, which uses 6-axis robotic machines to create structures from steel literally in mid-air. Plans for building the bridge involve using two (or more) of these machines to effectively begin construction on either bank of the canal and build toward one another, meeting in the middle.
As I’ve said before, 3D Manufacturing is the next evolution in production. I consider that it can, and will, replace many manufacturing jobs and allow for even small communities to produce everything that they require.
Our government should be pushing R&D in this so that NZ doesn’t get left behind again.
Must be a very difficult process to get certification for complete bridge. But seems a good place to start.
The building in place is a major innovation which uses some concepts that have been around for ages, ie Sydney harbour Bridge arch used cranes on each span, to build it up from the pre-cut steel girders , until they met in the middle.
The other day a series of moderations on ts included removal of comments, in some cases whole comments. The removed comments were not defammatory or excessively offensive and IMO were not attacks on the authors, which I had thought are the usual reasons for removing comments.
What I am writing right now isn’t a comment on the bans given or the reasons, or the kind of communication that went on, or the line between pointing out inaccuracies and challenging a moderator, but I am noting that when moderation happens on ts now whole comments are sometimes being removed. I think that is new. This changes things like conversation flow and comprehension of sub threads and IMO degrades the debate where it happens. As a result I’m at the point now where I’ll start making copies of some conversations so that at least it’s possible to follow what is going on.
I didn’t witness the moderation you’re talking about, but I’d have to say that yes, moderation of entire comments has typically been very rare in the past. Usually it’s reserved for out-and-out trolls.
I am disappointed that Andrew Little has not been seen in South Dunedin since the floods. This is one of the reddest voting areas and we give Labour a lot of support.
Volunteers were left shocked, upset and shaken after visiting South Dunedin’s hardest-hit flood victims this week.
They found people enduring sodden bedding, soaked carpets and houses still damp and smelly from week-old polluted floodwater.
The densely populated area is one of New Zealand’s poorest, and volunteers found families and elderly people who had been struggling before the floods but were now in bad health and emotional danger.
It is a matter of disaster responsibilities and public duties. The leader of the Labour Party ought to urgently go to South Dunedin, and he should be standing with, walking alongside and engaging with those who have been affected by the flooding.
from that attitude it’s easy to see why Dunedin South, historically one of the staunchest and reddest strongholds of the Labour Party, gave the party vote to National in 2014 for the second election in a row. I’m currently picking it will be three times in a row.
I was kilometers away that night and the warnings were all to avoid driving into flooded areas. But I doubt that there were that many places open to sell potting mix in South Dunedin:
After helping with sandbagging efforts with the St Kilda Surf Life Saving Club for about two hours on the day of the flooding, Ms Curran said she was told civil defence had left the situation in the hands of support services earlier in the night…
Ms Curran said a team of people was ”fighting a losing battle” sandbagging in a bid to protect homes.
People who asked the council for help were told to buy potting mix and do the sandbagging themselves, she said.
”They were told to self-evacuate and to make the judgements themselves.”…
Bay View Rd resident Trina Lyon, who suffers from MS and uses a mobility scooter, echoed Ms Curran’s comments.
She said she rang the council requesting sandbags on Wednesday afternoon and was told to contact the fire service.
They directed her to civil defence, which advised her it did not provide sandbags but the council should.
She had since learned the sandbags were available at the St Kilda Surf Life Saving Club.
True – mum lived in atkinson st so I’ve spent a bit of time there among all of the council flats – most of the residents must have found it exceedingly frightening and as for potting mix – maybe switched on gardener or whatever they were/are called 🙂
The problem seemed to be that different organisations failed to work together to solve problems; instead they stuck doggedly to their ‘as usual’ activity silos.
Problem was, it wasn’t business as usual that night.
Overall a failure of planning and a failure of leadership.
Thoughts go out to South Dunedin. In addition to putting up with the MP for the past six years, they now have to cope with the one-in-a-hundred-year flood.
Yep. The middle of winter in South Dunedin. The ODT has been giving some good coverage. I agree that it would have been good for Little to have visited.
It’s like a smaller version of Chch, the rest of NZ just moves on and few people are paying attention to what matters or the extremity of the lives of the people affected.
People and communities are less resilient than they used to be and I wonder if many people just assume that everything is being coped with.
Interesting pics of photo ops. So, it would be very bad for Andrew Little to be seen in photos of him in South Dunedin after waters have receded. I guess he must not be associated in any way with the plight of South Dunedin residents.
The local MP, Clare Curran, is fronting the matter. I’m sure Andrew Little is entirely supportive of her efforts and indeed, of the people of Dunedin.
The point I’m making is that if he had turned up, the headlines would be ‘Labour Leader wastes Taxpayer Money Flying to Dunedin to Do Bugger All’ or ‘Little Washed Up’ etc. It’s not like he has the power to change anything, anyway. The real question is why isn’t the actual Government doing anything to help.
‘Labour Leader wastes Taxpayer Money Flying to Dunedin to Do Bugger All’
He could go down there and do something.
Little should be controlling his message, not letting fear of National/the MSM control it. Beyond that, it’s just plain old fashioned values whereby you do the right thing.
Unfortunately I don’t know any more about who is involved with this thing than is in the public arena. I am guessing that quite a few Wellington based Labour hangers-on and wannabes are involved.
Look, weka, it is absolutely crucial that Andrew Little does not open himself up to having photos taken of him concerning the South Dunedin flood or he will be mocked and scorned by the government, question time in the House, plus Dirty Politics and all that. South Dunedin people are very resilient and fine and they can look after their own. Let’s not make any fuss about the flooding. It is really important to maintain Andrew Little’s image in the mainstream media and protect him from how Nats control bad perceptions of him in the public eye.
This man Steve can sum it all up so well! John Key by Steve Braunias
It’s raining, but at the end of the day there’s not a lot the government can do about that, or about Clayton Park primary school in Manurewa which is riddled with toxic mould and makes staff and children sick, or about cold, damp state house which have been blamed for the deaths of two tenants, although I’ll certainly hold talks with the appropriate ministers, who I understand have been briefed by cabinet that the bad weather we’ve been having is due to the Labour Party. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11464360
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House Democrats derailed “fast-track” today, putting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President’s Obama’s pet trade free-trade agreement, in jeopardy. You may have some questions about what that all means. Questions like:
What’s TPP? And “fast-track,” what is that? Why is Barack Obama yelling at Democrats and calling that nice Elizabeth Warren a liar? What should I, a cool liberal internet person who doesn’t actually pay close attention to horrifically boring political news, think about this? What is the Correct and Smart Position?
To which I am tempted to say: Fuck off, I’m not your mom and I’m not Vox dot fucking com. If you want to understand the goddamn news you have to actually read widely from a variety of sources, you can’t look at one fucking chart and pretend you know what you’re fucking talking about.
But that would be unproductive. So let’s “explainer the news.”
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As we welcome in the new year, our focus is on continuing to keep New Zealanders safe and moving forward with our economic recovery. There’s a lot to get on with, but before we say a final goodbye to 2020, here’s a quick look back at some of the milestones ...
The Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the Prime Minister of the Cook Islands Mark Brown have announced passengers from the Cook Islands can resume quarantine-free travel into New Zealand from 21 January, enabling access to essential services such as health. “Following confirmation of the Cook Islands’ COVID ...
Jobs for Nature funding is being made available to conservation groups and landowners to employ staff and contractors in a move aimed at boosting local biodiversity-focused projects, Conservation Minister Kiritapu Allan has announced. It is estimated some 400-plus jobs will be created with employment opportunities in ecology, restoration, trapping, ...
The Government has approved an exception class for 1000 international tertiary students, degree level and above, who began their study in New Zealand but were caught offshore when border restrictions began. The exception will allow students to return to New Zealand in stages from April 2021. “Our top priority continues ...
Today’s deal between Meridian and Rio Tinto for the Tiwai smelter to remain open another four years provides time for a managed transition for Southland. “The deal provides welcome certainty to the Southland community by protecting jobs and incomes as the region plans for the future. The Government is committed ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has appointed Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC). The leader of each APEC economy appoints three private sector representatives to ABAC. ABAC provides advice to leaders annually on business priorities. “ABAC helps ensure that APEC’s work programme is informed by business community perspectives ...
The Government’s prudent fiscal management and strong policy programme in the face of the COVID-19 global pandemic have been acknowledged by the credit rating agency Fitch. Fitch has today affirmed New Zealand’s local currency rating at AA+ with a stable outlook and foreign currency rating at AA with a positive ...
The Government is putting in place a suite of additional actions to protect New Zealand from COVID-19, including new emerging variants, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said today. “Given the high rates of infection in many countries and evidence of the global spread of more transmissible variants, it’s clear that ...
$36 million of Government funding alongside councils and others for 19 projects Investment will clean up and protect waterways and create local jobs Boots on the ground expected in Q2 of 2021 Funding part of the Jobs for Nature policy package A package of 19 projects will help clean up ...
The commemoration of the 175th anniversary of the Battle of Ruapekapeka represents an opportunity for all New Zealanders to reflect on the role these conflicts have had in creating our modern nation, says Associate Minister for Arts, Culture and Heritage Kiri Allan. “The Battle at Te Ruapekapeka Pā, which took ...
Babies born with tongue-tie will be assessed and treated consistently under new guidelines released by the Ministry of Health, Associate Minister of Health Dr Ayesha Verrall announced today. Around 5% to 10% of babies are born with a tongue-tie, or ankyloglossia, in New Zealand each year. At least half can ...
The prisoner disorder event at Waikeria Prison is over, with all remaining prisoners now safely and securely detained, Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis says. The majority of those involved in the event are members of the Mongols and Comancheros. Five of the men are deportees from Australia, with three subject to ...
Travellers from the United Kingdom or the United States bound for New Zealand will be required to get a negative test result for COVID-19 before departing, and work is underway to extend the requirement to other long haul flights to New Zealand, COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins confirmed today. “The new PCR test requirement, foreshadowed last ...
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has added her warm congratulations to the New Zealanders recognised for their contributions to their communities and the country in the New Year 2021 Honours List. “The past year has been one that few of us could have imagined. In spite of all the things that ...
Attorney-General and Minister for the Environment David Parker has congratulated two retired judges who have had their contributions to the country and their communities recognised in the New Year 2021 Honours list. The Hon Tony Randerson QC has been appointed a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio says the New Year’s Honours List 2021 highlights again the outstanding contribution made by Pacific people across Aotearoa. “We are acknowledging the work of 13 Pacific leaders in the New Year’s Honours, representing a number of sectors including health, education, community, sports, the ...
The Government’s investment in digital literacy training for seniors has led to more than 250 people participating so far, helping them stay connected. “COVID-19 has meant older New Zealanders are showing more interest in learning how to use technology like Zoom and Skype so they can to keep in touch ...
A nationwide poll has found majority support for the government to continue to closely monitor abortions in New Zealand and the reasons for it, despite the Ministry of Health recently suggesting that there is not a use for collecting much of this information. ...
The out-of-control growth in gangs, gun crime, and violent gang activity is exposing our communities to dangerous levels of violence that will inevitably end in tragedy, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “The recent incidents of people being shot and ...
Successive governments have paid lip service to our productivity challenge but have failed to deliver. It's time to establish a Productivity Council charged with prioritising efforts. ...
Understanding the connection between chronic fatigue syndrome and ‘long Covid’ might be helpful in treating symptoms that doctors will find all too easy to dismiss.When people began to report signs of “long Covid”, characterised by a lack of full recovery from the virus and debilitating fatigue, I recognised their stories. ...
Nadine Anne Hura, who never considered herself an artist, reflects on what art and making has taught her.I couldn’t clean or cook or wash the clothes, but I could sew. That’s a lie, I’m a terrible sewer, but I left work early to fossick around in the $1 bin of ...
Summer reissue: In the final episode of this season of Bad News, Alice is joined by Billy T award winner Kura Forrester to look at how well we’re honouring Te Tiriti o Waitangi in 2020.First published September 3, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The ...
Lucy Revill’s The Residents is a blog about daily life in Wellington that has morphed into a stylish, low-key coffee-table book featuring interviews and photographic portraits of 38 Wellingtonians. In this extract, Revill profiles Eboni Waitere, owner and executive director of Huia Publishers. The Residents features names like Monique Fiso ...
Pacific Media Watch correspondent The pro-independence conflict in West Papua with a missionary plane reportedly being shot down at Intan Jaya has stirred contrasting responses from the TNI/POLRI state sources, church leaders and an independence leader. A shooting caused a plane to catch fire on 6 January 2021 in the ...
“Last year ACT warned that rewarding protestors at Ihumātao with taxpayer money would promote further squatting. We just didn’t think it would happen as quickly as it is in Shelly Bay” says ACT Leader David Seymour. “The prosperity of all ...
Our kindly PM registered her return to work as leader of the nation with yet another statement on the Beehive website, the second in two days (following her appointment of Anna Curzon to the APEC Business Advisory Council on Wednesday). It’s great to know we don’t have to check with ...
A Pūhoi pub is refusing to remove a piece of memorabilia bearing the n-word from its walls. Dr Lachy Paterson looks at the history of the word here, and New Zealand’s complicity in Britain’s shameful slave trading past.Content warning: This article contains racist language and images.On a pub wall in ...
Supermarket shoppers looking for citrus are seeing a sour trend at the moment – some stores are entirely tapped out of lemons. But why? Batches of homemade lemonade will be taking a hit this summer, with life not giving New Zealand shoppers lemons. Prices are high at supermarkets and grocers that ...
You’re born either a cheery soul or a gloomy one, reckons Linda Burgess – but what happens when gene pools from opposite ends of the spectrum collide?In our shoeboxes of photos that we have to sort out before we die or get demented – because who IS that kid on ...
Summer reissue: Prisoner voting rights are something that few in government seem particularly motivated to do anything about. Could a catchy charity single help draw attention to the issue?First published September 1, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is funded by its ...
Hundreds more Cook Islanders are expected to begin criss-crossing the Pacific, Air NZ will triple the number of flights to Rarotonga next week, and about 300 managed isolation places will be freed up for Kiwis returning from other parts of the world. When Thomas Tarurongo Wynne took a job in Wellington at ...
SPECIAL REPORT:By Ena Manuireva in Auckland It seems a long time ago – some 124 days – since Mā’ohi Nui deplored its first covid-19 related deaths of an elderly woman on 11 September 2020 followed by her husband just hours later, both over the age of 80. The local ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Turnbull, Postdoctoral research associate, UNSW A global coalition of more than 50 countries have this week pledged to protect over 30% of the planet’s lands and seas by the end of this decade. Their reasoning is clear: we need greater protection ...
The Reserve Bank Governor’s apology and claim he will ‘own the issue’ is laughable given the lack of answers and timing of its release. Jordan Williams, a spokesman for the Taxpayers’ Union said: “It’s been five days since they came clean, ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Olga Kokshagina, Researcher – Innovation & Entrepreneurship, RMIT University Are too many online meetings and notifications getting you down? Online communication tools – from email to virtual chat and video-conferencing – have transformed the way we work. In many respects they’ve made ...
The Reserve Bank acknowledges information about some of its stakeholders may have been breached in a malicious data hack. The Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand has commissioned an independent inquiry into how stakeholders' information was compromised when hackers breached a file sharing service used by the bank. “We ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Caitlin Syme, PhD in Vertebrate Palaeontology, The University of Queensland This story contains spoilers for Ammonite Palaeontologist Mary Anning is known for discovering a multitude of Jurassic fossils from Lyme Regis on England’s Dorset Coast from the age of ten in 1809. ...
A tribute to the sitcoms of old? In the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Yup. Sam Brooks reviews the audacious WandaVision.Nothing sends a chill up my spine like the phrase “Marvel Cinematic Universe”. Since launching in 2008 with Iron Man, the MCU has become a shambling behemoth, with over 23 films (not ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Corbould, Associate Professor, Contemporary Histories Research Group, Deakin University The alt-right, QAnon, paramilitary and Donald Trump-supporting mob that stormed the US Capitol on January 6 claimed they were only doing what the so-called “founding fathers” of the US had done in ...
The Point of Order Ministerial Workload Watchdog and our ever-vigilant Trough Monitor were both triggered yesterday by an item of news from the office of Conservation Minister Kititapu Allan. The minister was drawing attention to new opportunities to dip into the Jobs for Nature programme (and her statement was the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andreas Kupz, Senior Research Fellow, James Cook University In July 1921, a French infant became the first person to receive an experimental vaccine against tuberculosis (TB), after the mother had died from the disease. The vaccine, known as Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), is ...
The first Friday Poem for 2021 is by Wellington poet Rebecca Hawkes.While you were partying I studied the bladeI your ever-loving edgelord God-emperorof the bot army & bitcoin mine subsistingon an IV drip of gamer girl bathwaterfinally my lonelinessis your responsibility………. you seeI need a girlfriend assigned to me by the ...
The arming of police officers in Canterbury was inevitable with the growing numbers and brazenness of the gangs across the country – this should be a permanent step, says Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is unfortunate that we have come to the point ...
Celebrations in Aotearoa New Zealand to mark the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) will begin on Thursday 21 January with ICAN Aotearoa New Zealand’s Wellington and online event, and continue on Friday ...
Hardly anyone is using their Covid Tracer app. Something needs to change.As the mercury approaches 30°C in Aotearoa, there is a good deal of slipping and slopping, but, let’s face it, piss-all scanning. As few as around 500,000 QR codes are being scanned by users of the NZ Covid Tracer ...
On the East Coast, a group of Māori-owned enterprises is innovating to create new revenue streams while doing what they love.New Zealand’s remote and sparsely populated regions are typically not the best places to create thriving brick-and-mortar businesses. In small communities miles away from any major centres, there are so ...
As we reach the height of summer, it’s not too late to do a safety check on your gas bottle. The Environmental Protection Authority’s Safer Homes programme has some tips and tricks to keep in mind before you fire up the grill. "If you’ve ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1Troy: The Siege of Troy Retold by Stephen Fry (Michael Joseph, $37)If you’re in any way unsure about ...
“We may as well knock on the gang headquarters around this country and tell them we all give up," says Darroch Ball co-leader of Sensible Sentencing Trust. “It is simply outrageous that violent offender, James Tuwhangai, has been released from ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Ireland, Israel, and Lebanon. Chart by Keith Rankin. The countries with the most recent large outbreaks of Covid19 are those with large numbers of recent recorded cases, but yet to record the deaths that most likely will result. In this camp, this time, are Ireland, Israel ...
RuPaul is in Aotearoa, kicking back in managed isolation to await the filming of an Australasian version of her hugely popular reality show Drag Race. But not everyone is happy about, explains Eli Matthewson. The world’s most famous drag queen, RuPaul, is in New Zealand, the government confirmed earlier this week ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gregory Melleuish, Professor, School of Humanities and Social Inquiry, University of Wollongong What can we make of Clive Palmer? This week, he announced his United Australia Party (UAP) would not contest the upcoming West Australian state election on March 13. After a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Gisela Kaplan, Emeritus Professor in Animal Behaviour, University of New England Have you ever seenmagpies play-fighting with one another, or rolling around in high spirits? Or an apostlebird running at full speed with a stick in its beak, chased by a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jen Jackson, Program Director, Centre for Policy Development, and Associate Professor of Education, Mitchell Institute, Victoria University Childcare centres across Australia are suffering staff shortages, which have been exacerbated by the COVID crisis. Many childcare workers across Australia left when parents started ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jonathan Barrett, Senior Lecturer in Taxation, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington Rhetoric plays an important role in tax debate and therefore tax policy. If your side manages to gain traction in the public imagination with labels such as “death ...
*This article was first published on The Conversation and is republished with permission* Whoever leads the Republican Party post-Trump will need to consider how they will maintain the rabid support of his “base”, while working to regain more moderate voters who defected from the party in the 2020 election. In a historic ...
Covid-19 fears accelerated banks’ moves towards cashless transactions. But the Reserve Bank is fighting to protect cash, and those who still use it. ...
Good morning and welcome to this one-off edition of The Bulletin, covering major stories from the last few weeks.A quick preamble to this: Today’s special edition of The Bulletin is all about filling you in on some of the stories you might have missed over the summer period. Perhaps you had ...
Summer reissue: In this episode of Bad News, Alice Snedden is forced to confront her own mortality before hosting a very special dinner party to get to grips with the euthanasia debate.First published August 27, 2020.Independent journalism depends on you. Help us stay curious in 2021. The Spinoff’s journalism is ...
The contrast between the words of John F Kennedy and today’s anti-democratic demagogue is inescapable, writes Dolores Janiewski I still remember three eloquent speeches by an American president. One happened in January 1961 and spoke about a “torch being passed to a new generation”. Two years later and one day apart, ...
The debate over cutting down a large macrocarpa to make way for a new residential development has highlighted a wider agreement between developers and protesters: that we also need to be planting far more trees. At the corner of Great North Road and Ash Street in Avondale, a 150-year-old macrocarpa stands its ground ...
More infectious variants of Covid-19 are increasingly being intercepted at the country’s borders, but the minister running New Zealand’s response is resisting pressure to accelerate vaccination plans despite demands from health experts as well as political friends and foes, Justin Giovannetti reports.New Zealand’s first Covid-19 jabs will be administered in ...
As CEO of her iwi rūnanga, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was on the frontline protecting her community during the first outbreak of Covid-19. Now that more virulent strains threaten to breach our borders, the Māori Party co-leader calls on the government to introduce much stricter measures.As we enter the New Year I ...
The Prada Cup challenger series starts today. Suzanne McFadden goes behind the scenes of the world's only live yachting regatta to see what's in store for the next five weeks. At 6am on race days, Iain Murray wakes up and immediately checks the weather outside his Auckland window. “It’s all ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Raquel Peel, Lecturer, University of Southern Queensland This story contains spoilers for Bridgerton The first season of Bridgerton, Netflix’s new hit show based on Julia Quinn’s novels, premiered on December 25 last year. The show is set in London, during the ...
The New Zealand government believes its own negotiations with Rio Tinto will be resolved "fairly quickly" now there is certainty about the future of the Tiwai Point smelter. ...
Amanda Thompson and her family are attempting to cut back on the meat, so they gave all the vego sausies the local supermarket had to offer a hoon on the barbie. Here are the results.I was a vegetarian once. Even the best of us take a well-meaning wrong turn on ...
The Taxpayers’ Union welcomes the call by Wellington City Councillor Fleur Fitzsimons for a shift to land value based rates charges. Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, "Local government leaders across the country should join in Fitzsimons’s call ...
It’s been described as ‘pointless revenge’, but impeaching the president has a firm moral purpose, argues Michael Blake – setting a limit to what sorts of action a society will accept.A House majority, including 10 Republicans, voted today to impeach President Trump for “incitement of insurrection”. The vote will initiate ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Bryan Cranston, Lead Academic Teacher – Politics & Social Science (Swinburne Online), Swinburne University of Technology In a historic vote today, Donald Trump became the only US president to be impeached twice. By a margin of 232–197, the Democrat-controlled US House of ...
Hurrah. The PM is back to posting her announcements on the government’s official website, her deputy is back in the business of self-congratulation, Rio Tinto is back in the business of sucking up cheap electricity to produce aluminium at Tiwai Point, near Bluff. And overseas students (some, anyway) can come ...
The electricity sector, Government and people of Southland are rejoicing after Tiwai Point aluminium smelter owner Rio Tinto announced the major industrial would be open until the end of 2024, Marc Daalder reports Stakeholders in the electricity sector and across Southland are celebrating the extension of the Tiwai Point aluminium smelter's ...
If you’ve been on social media this week, you may well have come across a surge in interest in sea shanties. We asked a veteran of the style why. In case you missed it, soon may the Wellerman come, to bring us sugar and tea and rum. If that sentence is even ...
“It is basic human decency to speak up and protect any vulnerable child from harm, so withholding information in child abuse cases and allowing the abuse to happen by not speaking up is, put simply, a cowardly move,” says Jess McVicar Co-Leader ...
Allowing 1,000 returning international students back to New Zealand is the right move by the Government, and hopefully we will be able to welcome more, says ExportNZ Executive Director Catherine Beard. "International education has contributed ...
A majority of the House of Representatives have voted to make Donald Trump the first US president ever to be impeached twice, formally charging him in his waning days in power with inciting an insurrection just a week after a violent mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol. Follow the ...
The Youth of NZ will be standing up for climate action once again on January 26th outside of Parliament for School Strike 4 Climate NZ’s 100 Days 4 Action campaign rally. “We believe it is vital to hold our new Labour-led government to account ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is calling on Rotorua Lakes District Council to urgently release the engineering report on the public safety and structural integrity of the visible foundation-misalignment and lean of the City’s Hemo Gorge monument to government ...
Changes in income and movement in and out of poverty over time are only weakly associated with higher rates of child hospitalisation in New Zealand, according to a new University of Auckland study. Published today in PLOS ONE, the collaborative study led by Dr ...
With a long, hot summer upon us, pet owners are urged to be extra mindful of their pet’s health and safety. Unusually warm weather can quickly take its toll on furry family members, who aren’t well equipped for dealing with blazing heat. The National ...
The Council for Civil Liberties is challenging a claim by former National Party leader Simon Bridges that people should have total freedom of expression on Twitter. ...
A century of sexual abuse of women in New Zealand is analysed in a University of Auckland study. The newly-published research looks back as far as 1922 by analysing interviews with thousands of women about their lifetime experiences. The study indicates ...
62,686 more native trees will be planted in New Zealand in 2021 thanks to generous Kiwis who chose to go green for Christmas gifting. <img src="https://img.scoop.co.nz/stories/images/2101/cf409712f141732a8543.jpeg" width="720" height="540"> Trees That Count, a programme ...
Source: Council on Hemispheric Affairs – Analysis-Reportage By Arturo López-LevyOakland, CaliforniaUnfortunately, the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters, encouraged by the Inciter-in-Chief, will not be the last act of mischief. Trump is insisting on causing as much damage as possible to the interests and values ...
Powerful stuff from Fran O Sullivan in todays NZH, excellent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11464413
It seems to me that Key needs to get some GUTS about the safety legislation.
All the more powerful since Fran is often a fan of Key.
Daily Review has not appeared tonight so will leave this here:
Reportedly said by Matthew Hooton in his latest NBR article this is an extract:
Progress is the think tank purportedly being set up by Pagani, Leggott, Quinn and others.
If this excerpt is more or less correct, then it looks like “Progress” is dead in the water at least as far as the Labour Party is concerned. It also means someone has leaked caucus information – YET AGAIN.
Fuck me, this appears to confirm that caucus is leaking to Hooton like a sieve again
Pure speculation, but my hunch is the info. came either direct from Josie Pagani or through her spouse John Pagani, who is sure to still have links with one or two Labour MPs. If the meetings did go the way it is claimed then it would be a case of revenge because they didn’t get the response they wanted.
In other words, the whole think tank idea is really all about Pagani, Quinn, Leggott and co. and not the Labour Party!
Tppa battle is going on in USA.
“The US House of Representatives on Friday (Saturday NZT) delivered a blow, though perhaps a temporary one, to President Barack Obama’s signature goal of strengthening ties with Asia when it defeated one measure, but approved another important to finishing a Pacific Rim trade pact.”
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/69360200/president-obama-suffers-setback-on-tpp-legislation
Also read “Fast Track Derailed? House Deals Blow to Corporate-Friendly Trade Agenda”
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/06/12/fast-track-derailed-house-deals-blow-corporate-friendly-trade-agenda
and
“Democrats Rebel To Block Obama’s Trade Deals”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/12/obama-trade-deal_n_7569874.htm
“Defeat for Obama on trade as Democrats vote against him
Setback for future trade agreements as strange coalition of Democrats and conservative Republicans come together to defeat president”
http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jun/12/obama-trade-deals-congress-trans-pacific-partnership
The following explains the way that the US House of Reps ties 2 bills in together in order to pass unpalatable legislation.
” What Obama was proposing was a trick, one used repeatedly to advance distasteful policies, by getting each side to vote only on the parts they like. And House progressives responded by saying they wouldn’t play that game anymore. If they can withstand the pressure, not only will trade be derailed, but the era of the split-vote gambit, where opponents help the victors, will be over.
“Progressive Democrats took their stand on trade adjustment assistance (TAA), a separate bill to “fast track” trade authority for the President, which the Senate linked together, so that they had to pass concurrently. TAA offers modest job training, income support and health insurance assistance to workers who lose their jobs from trade deals. It’s not very effective, but it sounds good; Democrats who oppose trade deals can say that they at least got some help for workers.
TAA and fast track have passed together ever since the Trade Act of 1974. This is a Washington game where Democrats get to vote for TAA so Republicans don’t have to. Republicans don’t favor TAA because they see it as welfare.
That set up liberal Democrats as the deciding factor on whether Obama would get his fast-track trade authority. The President went to Capitol Hill to tell Democrats to “play it straight” on the vote. But voting for TAA as a sweetener for a policy most Democrats don’t support is the opposite of playing it straight. It’s a stupid game, and progressives finally decided not to play.
……But today, TAA fell 126-302, with only 39 Democrats supporting.”
http://www.salon.com/2015/06/12/the_democrats_tpp_rebellion_just_drew_blood_everything_you_need_to_know_about_todays_shocking_vote/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
A trade deal so good they need to gut health spending to finance a special programme to compensate the people who lose their jobs because of it.
/
Medicare means many things to many people. To seniors, it’s a program providing good, low-cost healthcare at a stage in life when it’s most needed.
To Congress, it’s beginning to look more like a piggy bank to be raided.
That’s the only conclusion one can draw from a provision slipped into a measure to extend and increase the government’s Trade Adjustment Assistance program, which provides assistance to workers who lose their jobs because of trade deals. The measure, introduced by Rep. David Reichert (R-Wash.), proposes covering some of the $2.7-billion cost of the extension by slicing $700 million out of doctor and hospital reimbursements for Medicare.
http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-congress-plots-to-raid-medicare-20150518-column.html#page=1
Interestingly in the USA they recognise TPP opening up trade will result in job losses
I have to wonder at the motives, or at least the negotiating skills, of the NZ parties involved in this.
The outstanding feature of the TPP negotiations is that the USA approached us, by us I mean all the parties involved in the initial stages. They wanted in when they weren’t invited, meaning we had something the US wanted.
Anyone who knows about negotiating will know that put the US in a weak position and the rest of us in a strong position. We could tell the US to naff off, clearly the fact the US weren’t invited to begin with tells us we don’t need them to create a strong trans pacific partnership.
Everything about this deal is saying that the US want in more than we need or want them, so why are our representatives caving in and pandering to them?
We’re a vassal state. Consider what we did for them re: illegal Dotcom raid. Only in very rare instances can we tell them to “F off.” Plus Groser has probably been looking at a nice position on an executive board overseas somewhere. Probably the US.
This was part of Nancy Pelosi’s speech prior to the vote on the TAA.
“I was hopeful from the start of this discussion that we could find a path to yes,” she said, adding, “Each week, each of us goes home to our district and in the case of many of us, we put our hand on a very hot stove. We hear the concern of so many families that have financial instability and uncertainty.” Ms. Pelosi made it clear she would not support the legislation, putting in the final twist of the knife.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/13/us/politics/democrats-revolt-on-trade-bill-obama.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0
“we put our hand on a very hot stove”…
This is our problem. We need to call our MPs to account. Let’s stop passively accepting crappy government decisions and really turn up the heat on the stove for our local MPs.
Correct. This is the philosophy of the Andersons Bay Peninsula Branch of the Labour Party (Dunedin South).
List MPs must also be held to account.
These people work for us, and they are paid damn well to do so.
On a “lighter” note – from across the ditch – the first dog comments on windfarm syndrome
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/nov/19/first-dog-on-the-moon-windfarm-inquiry-sickness
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jun/12/dr-onthemoons-self-diagnosis-windfarm-syndrome-check-list?CMP=ema_1732
But no worries Tony has cut the windfarm developments – much better to use clean coal.
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jun/11/tony-abbotts-boast-of-wind-farm-cuts-contradicts-earlier-stand-on-renewables
How the hell are we ever going to get governments to work together to reduce GHG with muppets like him about!
the answer is Macro, we’re not, unfortunately.
Their coal is like dairying is to us. Or more correctly , their mining lobby is even stronger than our dairy lobby.
Making fun of people’s health concerns is not helpful and is politically bankrupt. Let’s keep in mind that in NZ at least wind farms are often big business, with often little respect for local communities and their needs. People get ridiculed for opposing them in ways that people who say oppose new dams don’t. Why is that exactly?
NZ needs to learn how to live within it’s limits. I support the shift to renewables obviously, but I’m hard pressed to support something like a large scale windfarm on the Lammermoors so that Aucklanders can wear t-shirts in winter, or people can have heated towel rails, or the dairy export industry can keep strip mining the NZ landscape, or we can convert the NZ car fleet to electric and not change our driving habits. There’s only so much land, and currently we are using the same daft thinking that brought us AGW ie that demand will increase supply indefinitely.
+1
Interesting thought about limits – can limits change and therefore living within those limits change. Are limits a construction rather than an absolute.
Build that renewable power now; for the moment people will use the electricity for frivalous BS, but in 20 years when we are in the middle of the crunch, wiser heads will prevail over how that power should be allocated – as long as we have that generation available to allocate.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/69340634/anger-at-delay-telling-public-about-christchurch-legionnaires-outbreak
This guy still believes he made the right decision even though the fact four people contracting the deadly airborne disease proves otherwise.
Wrong
Scary
Normal in Christchurch.
Trust authorities at your risk.
Does seem to become legionnaires capital of NZ.
But then again its only dead or very sick people, so National gets all the bureaucrats to cover up and obfuscate or their jobs are in danger.
3D Printed Steel Pedestrian Bridge Will Soon Span an Amsterdam Canal
As I’ve said before, 3D Manufacturing is the next evolution in production. I consider that it can, and will, replace many manufacturing jobs and allow for even small communities to produce everything that they require.
Our government should be pushing R&D in this so that NZ doesn’t get left behind again.
Must be a very difficult process to get certification for complete bridge. But seems a good place to start.
The building in place is a major innovation which uses some concepts that have been around for ages, ie Sydney harbour Bridge arch used cranes on each span, to build it up from the pre-cut steel girders , until they met in the middle.
They’ve been using 3D manufacturing in structural construction for hundreds of years. Back then they called it “brick laying.” 😛
The other day a series of moderations on ts included removal of comments, in some cases whole comments. The removed comments were not defammatory or excessively offensive and IMO were not attacks on the authors, which I had thought are the usual reasons for removing comments.
What I am writing right now isn’t a comment on the bans given or the reasons, or the kind of communication that went on, or the line between pointing out inaccuracies and challenging a moderator, but I am noting that when moderation happens on ts now whole comments are sometimes being removed. I think that is new. This changes things like conversation flow and comprehension of sub threads and IMO degrades the debate where it happens. As a result I’m at the point now where I’ll start making copies of some conversations so that at least it’s possible to follow what is going on.
I didn’t witness the moderation you’re talking about, but I’d have to say that yes, moderation of entire comments has typically been very rare in the past. Usually it’s reserved for out-and-out trolls.
On the authors’ discussion post lprent has reminded us all of the moderation rules. I hope that this particular problem will not recur.
thanks for the update r0b.
I am disappointed that Andrew Little has not been seen in South Dunedin since the floods. This is one of the reddest voting areas and we give Labour a lot of support.
“Volunteers shocked by flood victims’ plight”
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/345740/volunteers-shocked-victims-plight
You mean disaster tourism?
what’s a pretty dickish comment duke.
It is a matter of disaster responsibilities and public duties. The leader of the Labour Party ought to urgently go to South Dunedin, and he should be standing with, walking alongside and engaging with those who have been affected by the flooding.
Too afraid of the MSM taking the piss out of Labour
from that attitude it’s easy to see why Dunedin South, historically one of the staunchest and reddest strongholds of the Labour Party, gave the party vote to National in 2014 for the second election in a row. I’m currently picking it will be three times in a row.
Curran has been prominent in dealing with the flood and aftermath, so maybe not.
We’ll have another chat about this end 2017
ok 🙂
Yes she seemed very vocal and prominent which was good.
I was kilometers away that night and the warnings were all to avoid driving into flooded areas. But I doubt that there were that many places open to sell potting mix in South Dunedin:
http://www.odt.co.nz/video/news/dunedin/345739/no-civil-defence-help
True – mum lived in atkinson st so I’ve spent a bit of time there among all of the council flats – most of the residents must have found it exceedingly frightening and as for potting mix – maybe switched on gardener or whatever they were/are called 🙂
The problem seemed to be that different organisations failed to work together to solve problems; instead they stuck doggedly to their ‘as usual’ activity silos.
Problem was, it wasn’t business as usual that night.
Overall a failure of planning and a failure of leadership.
Thoughts go out to South Dunedin. In addition to putting up with the MP for the past six years, they now have to cope with the one-in-a-hundred-year flood.
Yep. The middle of winter in South Dunedin. The ODT has been giving some good coverage. I agree that it would have been good for Little to have visited.
It’s like a smaller version of Chch, the rest of NZ just moves on and few people are paying attention to what matters or the extremity of the lives of the people affected.
People and communities are less resilient than they used to be and I wonder if many people just assume that everything is being coped with.
When did John Key visit?
who cares about him? 😉
” … we give Labour a lot of support.” LOL, not you personally, of course, CV.
Here’s why it isn’t a good idea to wallow in a) floods, b) people’s misery. You get the piss taken out of you.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson/pictures-of-politicians-in-wellies-and-staring-at-floods#.jk4pY208J
Interesting pics of photo ops. So, it would be very bad for Andrew Little to be seen in photos of him in South Dunedin after waters have receded. I guess he must not be associated in any way with the plight of South Dunedin residents.
The local MP, Clare Curran, is fronting the matter. I’m sure Andrew Little is entirely supportive of her efforts and indeed, of the people of Dunedin.
The point I’m making is that if he had turned up, the headlines would be ‘Labour Leader wastes Taxpayer Money Flying to Dunedin to Do Bugger All’ or ‘Little Washed Up’ etc. It’s not like he has the power to change anything, anyway. The real question is why isn’t the actual Government doing anything to help.
Yeah, he had better not turn up then.
It is not a good idea to wallow in floods or people’s misery or he will get the mickey taken out of him.
This is Thorndon Bubble wisdom at it’s best Kiwiri. It’s the optics back in Wellington which are all important.
sounds like it.
‘Labour Leader wastes Taxpayer Money Flying to Dunedin to Do Bugger All’
He could go down there and do something.
Little should be controlling his message, not letting fear of National/the MSM control it. Beyond that, it’s just plain old fashioned values whereby you do the right thing.
You can see how the MSM effectively channels, guides and limits what Labour will consider doing and not consider doing.
And how Labour lets them do that.
Yep. Just watch the MSM pour praise on Pagani Nash Quinn et al as they get their project going.
Pagani, Quinn, Nash and Young?
LOL
Unfortunately I don’t know any more about who is involved with this thing than is in the public arena. I am guessing that quite a few Wellington based Labour hangers-on and wannabes are involved.
It was a joke 😉 There’s probably a better one, something along the lines of “at least it’s not Crosby, Textor, Nash and Young”
I got your reference 😉 and your second attempt is GOLD
Is it still Crosby(-textor), Nash & Young?
deja vu all over again 🙂
Honey, love the one you’re with …
If you’re down and confused
Thanks! I was hoping someone would post a vid.
Nobody has suggested that Little wallow in anything trp, that’s your misinterpretation.
The suggestion is that Little demonstrates that he cares, directly, to people that are in acute trouble.
Look, weka, it is absolutely crucial that Andrew Little does not open himself up to having photos taken of him concerning the South Dunedin flood or he will be mocked and scorned by the government, question time in the House, plus Dirty Politics and all that. South Dunedin people are very resilient and fine and they can look after their own. Let’s not make any fuss about the flooding. It is really important to maintain Andrew Little’s image in the mainstream media and protect him from how Nats control bad perceptions of him in the public eye.
Heh.
Courage requires use to stay potent and available 😉
Why not just ask him in an email, as opposed to public picking? Just ammunition for the Right wing Panza division.
YAY!
USA ‘fast track’ TPPA legislation is lost in the House of Representatives 302 – 126.
Really looking forward to any further vote on TPPA ‘fast track’ meeting the same fate.
“The will of the people is the basis of the authority of Government.”
No public say – NO TPPA!
Penny Bright
http://www.pennybright4mayor.org.nz
Punchy TPP cartoon
https://twitter.com/LI_politico/status/609491735564005376/photo/1
It seems the wealthy are getting behind Medical Cannabis in NSW, a 33million dollar research donation was announced yesterday.
http://unitedincompassion.org.nz/2015/06/12/daniel-haslams-legacy-leads-to-medicinal-cannabis-windfall-2/
The CDHB’s three-year battle for funding
So, that would be the capitalists bludging off of the government again and causing stress to the rest of NZ.
”In 2013, the CDHB’s performance was given a glowing commendation in an independent review undertaken by UK health charity the King’s Fund.”
Yeah, right.
The ‘independent review’ was exposed by Otago Uni academics last year as having been commissioned, costing $186,000:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago072380.html
This man Steve can sum it all up so well!
John Key by Steve Braunias
It’s raining, but at the end of the day there’s not a lot the government can do about that, or about Clayton Park primary school in Manurewa which is riddled with toxic mould and makes staff and children sick, or about cold, damp state house which have been blamed for the deaths of two tenants, although I’ll certainly hold talks with the appropriate ministers, who I understand have been briefed by cabinet that the bad weather we’ve been having is due to the Labour Party.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=11464360
The Judith Collins entry was my favourite
United in Compassion is seeking funds for our (Charitable) Trust we are setting up, please donate and share widely to support the cause of medical Cannabis
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/medicalcannabisadvocacy
heh
.
House Democrats derailed “fast-track” today, putting the Trans-Pacific Partnership, President’s Obama’s pet trade free-trade agreement, in jeopardy. You may have some questions about what that all means. Questions like:
What’s TPP? And “fast-track,” what is that? Why is Barack Obama yelling at Democrats and calling that nice Elizabeth Warren a liar? What should I, a cool liberal internet person who doesn’t actually pay close attention to horrifically boring political news, think about this? What is the Correct and Smart Position?
To which I am tempted to say: Fuck off, I’m not your mom and I’m not Vox dot fucking com. If you want to understand the goddamn news you have to actually read widely from a variety of sources, you can’t look at one fucking chart and pretend you know what you’re fucking talking about.
But that would be unproductive. So let’s “explainer the news.”
http://gawker.com/explainist-did-something-just-happen-with-fast-track-1710945284